Hiderigami

Overview

Hiderigami is the drought-associated being printed as 魃 in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki. The inspected illustration presents a hairy figure among rocks beneath prominent sun rays. Its unusual head and visible eye give drought a bodily presence rather than showing only an empty landscape. The label connects the Japanese image with the Chinese character ba, but a shared character does not require every drought-being account to describe the same individual.

The Great Wilderness North section of the Shanhaijing contains a substantial narrative about a being called Ba. She appears as a woman in blue or green clothing, identified as a daughter of the Yellow Emperor. During the conflict with Chiyou, the emperor sends Yinglong to gather water. Chiyou obtains the assistance of the wind lord and rain master, producing great wind and rain. Ba descends from heaven and stops the rain, after which Chiyou is killed.

The victory does not end the story. Ba cannot return above, and the places where she remains receive no rain. Shujun reports the problem, and the emperor places her north of the Red Water. The passage then describes an injunction used to send the spirit northward and mentions clearing waterways and opening channels. These actions belong to the narrative’s response to drought; the text is not evidence that issuing the injunction changes rainfall in the present.

This Chinese witness is important precisely because its appearance differs from Sekien’s hairy illustrated creature. It gives a clothed female figure a role in a named conflict, followed by displacement and a continuing environmental consequence. Sekien’s plate supplies another body and composition within a Japanese monster collection. Combining them indiscriminately would produce an invented biography in which every visible trait is assigned to the emperor’s daughter. The profile instead distinguishes the shared drought association, the printed character, the narrative participant, and the later illustrated treatment. Their exact historical transmission requires additional evidence.

Origins & earliest records

Selected historical witness: Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (1779) by Toriyama Sekien. The linked library record identifies a surviving printed edition; it does not establish when the belief first arose.

Records & interpretation

The historical illustration and individual contextual reference support this profile. Named motifs, local narratives and later explanations are distinguished; image-to-plate matching still needs review.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki

   Toriyama Sekien · 1779; surviving 1805 edition

   Selected historical witness; individual illustration now checked in the separately linked primary scan. This edition is not a claim of the earliest oral attestation.

2. 02

   Shanhaijing, Great Wilderness North: Yellow Emperor’s daughter Ba

   Anonymous composite received text

   Exact named passage directly read; bracketed commentary distinguished from base text.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary illustration / library recordKonjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki — historical library editionResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Secondary referenceHiderigami — contextual overview and bibliographyResearch access: 2026-10-05
3. Primary illustrated plate / institutional digitizationKonjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki — directly inspected IIIF canvas index 13 (zero-based); Konjakuzokuhyak1Tori_0014.jp2Research access: 2026-10-05
4. Primary-text transcriptionShanhaijing, Great Wilderness North: Yellow Emperor’s daughter BaResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

Hiderigami

Image associated with the exact linked encyclopedia article; consult credited file description for its interpretation.